The state is spending a whopping $16,008,360 a year prosecuting and jailing people for possession of marijuana for personal use, according a new report by the ACLU of Washington. The figure is based on a fiscal note, released last week by the Washington State Office of Financial Management, regarding a bill in the state senate to decriminalize marijuana. Over 11,000 people were arrested for pot possession in Washington in 2007.

The bill, which would reduce the penalty for possessing 40 grams or less of pot to a $100 infraction, would also generate $973,600 of revenue for the state and direct $590,000 into a criminal justice treatment account.

When the bill was introduced in January, the ACLU of Washington, which is supporting the bill, conservatively estimated that the states spends $7.5 million on enforcing pot possession crimes. Sponsored by Jeanne Kohl Welles (D-36), the bill is currently in the rules committee. I’m waiting to hear back from Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-3), who sits on the rules committee, to find out if and when the bill will be passed on to the senate floor. It has until March 12 to be voted out of the senate.

24 replies on “Millions of Reasons to Decriminalize Marijuana”

  3. Bu – but, what about those poor cops, judges, prison guards, parole officers, work-release contractors, and half-way house managers who would all be thrown out into the street by this capricious and short-sighted change in the status-quo?

    Don’t you have any compassion for them? Not to mention the burden on the rest of society their sudden unemployment will cause?

    Wait – what? You mean, NOBODY would lose their jobs under this change? The state would SAVE $$ that could be used to help shore up the budget deficit, and maybe help keep a few worthy programs from being completely gutted? People who choose to partake of the psychoactive effects of a plant would be more-or-less free to indulge without fear of incarceration? Common sense would finally prevail?

    Naw, can’t let THAT happen…

  5. Good. Now some enterprising stoner needs to figure out how to make ethanol from hemp.
    I look forward to the day where I see little marijuana-leaf icons next to a special flex-fuel pump at the gas station.

    College students, GET ON IT. There should be an X-Prize award for this. I’d donate.

  6. @3 – Comte – “nobody would lose their jobs”. That wasn’t how I read the note, but, maybe I didn’t spend enough time with it. Looked like most of the savings would be based on reduced FTE (court officials/staff, etc.), with some additional revenue from fines, etc as Dominic pointed out.

    I just looked at the note because I was curious how much of the savings was due to projected staff cuts, which oftentimes don’t actually happen (their time gets taken up with other things/cases, they’re re-assigned, etc.).

  8. @6:

    That was sort of my point. Court staff time would simply be redirected to deal with the plethora of actual criminal cases that already overload the judicial system; it simply means staff would become slightly LESS overburdened than they are currently.

  9. I think a better idea would be to adjust the fine to the current street value of the amount of pot found. Thus, if you had just bought an eighth, you would only be fined $50.

    It would have the added benefits of forcing users to be more thrifty with their weed (waste not, want not, people!) and helping to reverse discriminatory enforcement (i.e. rich white frat boys buying ounces at a time are fined more than black dude in the CD who just picked up a nickelbag.)

  11. @8 – yes but, that means that $16 million figure is a little misleading, no? At least if it includes staff reductions — I didn’t actually see what went into the $16 million number anywhere…

  12. @ 11) Here’s the breakdown from the ACLU’s analysis:

    City court costs — $2,350,000
    County court costs — $2,190,000
    State court costs — $185,000
    Prosecution — $4,667,520
    Public defense — $4,936,800
    Jail sentences — $1,679,040

    Total Savings — $16,008,360

  13. @7 – prices would drop, actually. Most of the current price is an artificial price support to pay for jail risk and loss of goods in transit – if it were sold at, say, WSLCB outlets to people legally able to drink, most of the actual price would be (one hopes) taxes.

    Remember, when Prohibition fell apart, the whole MJ scare thing was dreamed up as a way to keep the cops, judges, and prison industries fully employed.

  14. Dominic, post phone numbers. I will call whoever I need to call to get this to a floor vote, and hopefully have it passed, but I need a name and a number.

  18. @11:

    Well, presumably the savings would come from a whole range of law enforcement/criminal justice activities, not just savings in FTE court staffing requirements.

    Decriminalization would also result in reducing the amount of time cops spend investigating cases and/or writing reports, in addition to the amount of LE resources spent busting down doors; the amount of time judges spend on the cases in court, things like that.

  20. The legal ramifications should be analogous to alcohol violations, best they can be. Most minor alcohol related misdemeanors are something to the tune of $250 plus community service.

  22. 40 grams? That’s almost an ounce and a half! I’d love to have that much weed. I’d love to have any amount of weed.

  23. @19,
    The last part is a bad idea (taxes go to ed and health). If funding for education and health care were to rely in part on pot sales, then it’s in their best interest to get more people to buy pot. Not a good idea.
    Put the taxes towards prisons or something.

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